The Tainted Coils
by SharkGX
Summary: AU starting just prior to the beginning of Naruto. The young hero has an interesting experience at a young age that opens his eyes to a new way of thinking that will mark the beginnings of an Empire. No SLASH. Rating could go up.


Pain and suffering. These had been the only constants in the young boys life so far. This was an existence that no child should have foisted upon them but through circumstances beyond his control this was the life he was to lead. They were after him again, hunting down the defenceless child screaming about a 'Demon' and crying for Justice. Others were a little more honest though, some outright cried for vengeance and recently he had discovered what it was that got them so riled up.

As a young child he couldn't wander down the streets of the Hidden Leaf Village in the daytime for the glares and cruel words whispered in secret, but little Naruto Uzumaki heard every single vile syllable those worms-on-legs had spat at him. Before he never would've dared to walk the street at night for that was when what little protection the blonde believed he had would disappear, in the dark of the night there was no one who would come to his aid in hurry and the more ambitious ones amongst his haters would take advantage of this to swoop down upon him.

The smack of their fists upon his seemingly fragile frame, the slick slicing of their blades through his skin, the thundering of their venomous words seeping into his skull all for something that he had not understood. When the only thing one can be sure of in their life is miserable, unending pain, then usually there were a few directions their mentality could be twisted into. They could crumble to pieces, both spiritually and physically, slip into a perpetual depression of self-loathing , forever bathing in a puddle of tears and blood, crying out for answers as to why they suffer so.

Little Naruto had been here but found no satisfactory answers, it was an unfulfilling path and so he looked elsewhere. Another way his mind could go was to take the pain and convert it into overwhelming anger and hatred. Let the misery fuel your rage and unleash it like a gale-force tornado upon any and all who would seek to do you wrong, let them suffer your vengeance and weep for they have no one but themselves for the nightmare that had come back to haunt them. This was a path embrace by another young boy in another Hidden Village miles away from little Naruto who shared the same burden as our hero.

Speaking heroes, there was the path of endurance: To take all the slings and arrows only to rise above it all, to work tirelessly to prove that they were all wrong about you. To endure through pain, trials and tribulations, to persevere through all adversity like the sun rising in the horizon he could cast a blinding glorious light upon them all and they would see him for the wonder he truly was. Naruto Uzumaki the hero, the greatest Hokage of all time!

Yes, that really was an appealing option. It was the both Naruto had opted for, with the Third Hokages help, the only parental figure in the boy's life, he had signed up for the Ninja Academy. He would train to become a Shinobi and earn the respect of the village by becoming Hokage. No longer would he be the pariah but a Man who commanded the respect and adoration of all who looked upon him. For a while he played the struggling hero, choosing to ignore all the pain of his past and the fresh insults laid at his feet by both his Academy peers and the Adults, focusing on nothing but the straight-shot path ahead that would deliver him to the better life he dreamed of.

There was no rest from the suffering though. All Naruto had done was make it mandatory that he appear every day at the Academy for new humiliations and continued abuse. The other kids in the class thought him a joke but it was not his fault, the instructors were among those that looked at him with disgust and hatred, sabotaging his training to prevent him from fulfilling his dream. They thought him some idiot, a brainless moron that they could shun and ridicule. But this idiot took away the one thing he could from the Academy, the transformation Jutsu, and used it to his advantage.

They would never let him into the Academy, or even the Public, Library, at least not without supervision and heavy limitations on what he could read and take. But under the guise of a nameless, unassuming student, Naruto vowed to teach himself the ways of rising to power and greatness. However without the presence of a Master, the young pupil found himself overwhelmed by the wealth of information he could access. Fighting techniques, Chakra theory & control, Elemental Jutsu, he could read and practice all he wanted with mixed success but he would make little progress on his own. He had access to knowledge but did not possess the Wisdom and Experience needed to make anything of it and the Instructors were in no hurry to lend him theirs.

He struggled fruitlessly, despairing that the only avenue to a better quality of life had been denied and there was nothing left. They had broken him. The path of endurance was cut short, the boy fell to his knees as the hopelessness of his reality at last sank in. His heart fell and one night, in a zombie like daze, he stepped out of his dreary little apartment in the dead of night and brazenly sauntered through the streets.

Naruto had always had heightened senses for some reason, he could hear his stalkers as they tracked his every move. The boy walked into some seedy back alley in a bad part of town and waited for them, the alley grew darker as his hunters blocked out the light from the street as they crowded the entrance. He turned to face them with a smile, welcoming them with open arms.

The demon was provoking them, mocking them but they would suffer him no longer. With a frenzy of angry cries they charged the stupidly smiling boy with blunt weapons, kitchen knives, bottles and some even delighted in using their bare fists. The kicked and beat him with all their accumulated rage for the damage the Nine-Tails had caused them all those years ago and now the Demon had left itself open, vengeance would be theirs at long last

Naruto was in a state of drunken bliss. His mind had shattered earlier that day when he came to accept the stupidity of his struggle. Never would he understand the reason for the Villagers hatred, nor would he understand why they told their children to ostracize him from their games, or how their spite could extend so far to not only ruin his past but undermine what little future he had. Pain was the only truth of his life and now in the middle of this severe beating as the wounds piled on, his skin ripped and split, bones bruising and breaking, Naruto had come to love, adore and crave the only thing he could count on.

"Heh…ha, ha, ha… BWHAHAHAHAHAAAAHAAA!"

His blissful, insane laughter was the only response they got aside from the disgusting sounds of their attacks impacting upon his body. It drove them even wilder with rage that even in this time of retribution the Nine-Tails would laugh at them, showing them what a truly remorseless Devil it could be. One of them would take no more of its insults, brandishing a steel pipe, he came up behind the laughing, bleeding container of the beast and struck him with all his might across the back of his skull.

Darkness.

It surrounded him completely. His tired eyes cracked open just a notch as awareness returned to him only be met with the same darkness. The pain had stopped, that delicious and seemingly endless flow of agony had been cut short. He lamented that perhaps his body had taken all that it could withstand. At his breaking point the Reaper must've come to ferry him away for his soul would no longer be tethered to a lifeless corpse. Indeed, he felt as though her were floating along. This coldness seemed to fit the description of death as he understood it. The empty blackness was a surprise though, he thought there was some mention of a bright light at the end of a tunnel or some other such nonsense.

Seems those non-believers he'd overheard might be right about what awaited us all after death, nothing but empty blackness and rotting in the ground… Yet that didn't seem right… Naruto noted that he was aware, that he could think… Experimentally he tried to move his hand and found it responding rather easily, if facing some strange resistance. Likewise, wiggling the fingers on his other hand and rotating his feet proved to him that he was still very much alive and moving.

Though for a moment he had been ready to embrace death, the young boy breathed deep after releasing a calming sigh of relief… Only to choke and go wide eyed with panic when he inhaled a mouthful of dank water. Scurrying around and coming to his knees, soaking and cold, Naruto found he'd been floating face down in some shin-high water inside some dark tunnel that resembled a sewer pipe.

It made him shudder to think what he had just drank in and quickly spat out what remained, thumping on his chest to clear his airways. He could take stock of his surroundings now. It confused him, mere moments ago he'd been enjoying the orgasmic destruction of his body at the hands of the hateful villagers but now here he was in this sewer pipe. Had they dumped his body down here once they were finished with him? Then why wasn't he injured or at least feeling weak or sore?

Standing on his feet he started to walk straight ahead as there was clearly no way out from where he was. Though in a way he felt called towards something, the notion was reinforced when he started to not the water around his feet was slowly starting to get warmer the further he progressed. He'd noticed the place lacked the distinctive smell a sewer ought to have and when he thought about it, the water he'd choked on had tasted empty… just empty… not how envisioned sewer water should taste.

The temperature began to build bit by bit and Naruto could hear and even feel the rumbling of something shaking through the air and water. He could his spine tingling, shivering with excitement as the terror began to set it. Naruto no longer feared pain, he relished it, thoughts of his previous situation and where he was now became unimportant. His focus fell upon the growing sound of heavy growling and the ripples tickling at his shins in the water. The boy was trembling with anticipation, wondering what he was about to stumble upon, the sounds of some manner of beast were growing closer.

That was when he came to an obstacle of sorts in his path. A giant gate stood in his way, the bars thick as tree trunks and some manner of paper seal plastered on it seemed to serve as they only thing keeping it closed. The water was at its warmest here and the rumbling had mysteriously stopped. He noted, however, that the space between the bars was easily wide enough to casually saunter through. The only thing that gave him pause was wondering why this gate was here and if its purpose was to keep others out… or to keep something in?

**"Ah, so you've come to pay me a visit, have you?"**

The deepest, most demonic of growly voices rumbled through the air like a storm. Shocking Naruto who shuddered with fright as he looked into the bleak darkness behind the bars as the pitch black shadows suddenly cleared away to reveal what was hidden behind the gate. A giant red furred fox, laying down with its head resting upon it crossed paws, Nine mighty tails curled behind it and its fangs bared in a twisted mocking smile that never ceased. Searing red-slited eyes burned into Narutos wide blues as they shook with fear and trepidation.

**"I've been expecting you. It's been nearly a decade yet only now do you decide to grace me with your presence, hm, hm, hm"**

The fox mocked sarcastically, chuckling in dark amusement as it glared down at its host.

"Do forgive me"

It arched a curious eyebrow at that unexpected response from the young boy who instead of quivering with fear was smiling like a lunatic with morbid fascination in his eyes "Had I known the great Nine-Tails was awaiting me, I'd have arrived much sooner" the boy spoke with an airy tone of voice, as though mentally detached. He had known what this creature was the moment he had set eyes upon it, everyone thought him some simple-minded fool but Naruto was smart enough to recognize the infamous Tailed Beast that had nearly destroyed his Village. The only real question he had was to do with why it was here before him when it was supposedly destroyed.

"However… If you were expecting company, you might've tidied the place up a bit"

Naruto quipped with a smile and an uncomfortable look at the sewer like setting all around him. Having his mind broken and becoming addicted to the pleasure of pain had left him a little more open-minded. Worst case scenario was that this was all some delusion he was going through while in the throes of death, if not it was an excellent opportunity to shoot the breeze with one of the most monstrous creatures in existence. Perhaps he may achieve some form of greatness in the history books: Being slain by the Nine-Tailed Fox! Not a glorious footnote for them to put on his grave but it was something.

The fox's smiled curled up the sides of its face, the boy knew what it was yet had the audacity to speak in such a manner. How amusing **"The state of your mind and soul are not to control, human" **at least not presently **"Rather, if you're going to play host to such an honoured guest then perhaps YOU should provide better accommodations?" **the Fox suggested with a bit of snide humour in its snarky tone.

The Fox expected him to be floored by what it said, however, it widened its eyes in surprise when the boy suddenly rushed up to the bars with an excited look on his face, almost leaning in past the bars and breathing heavily with a crazed smile "My Mind and Soul? Host? Guest?" Naruto asked rapidly in fascination "Those are some interesting things to be saying, oh great Nine-Tails, the implications are…" he took a deep calming breath as he stepped back to clear his head.

Naruto looked at the fox, the seal, the gate, all around him. Soaking it all in as if for the first time "Tell me, do tell me… Whatever do you mean? Is it not true that you, the Great Nine-Tails, was destroyed by the Fourth Hokage all those years ago?" he asked a probing question to see what could be discerned from the monsters answer.

The fox had growing concerns about the mental state of its host, perhaps he was already broken and if so could be manipulated. Besides, it liked being constantly referred to as the Great Nine-Tails, with nothing else to do it could spare a few moments to indulge the unhinged Childs curiosity **"A Tailed-Beast cannot be killed or destroyed, at least not permanently. I've no desire to speak of that night" **it growled in remembrance of those events, being given just a taste of freedom only to be enslaved and then re-sealed all over again **"But here's what I will say… The Fourth Hokage could not destroy me but instead sealed me into the body of a new-born child…" **the Fox spoke slowly, it wanted to savour the slow realization and the despair of the child as he realized what he was.

**"That child was-"**

"It's me"

**"…It's you…"**

The mighty Tailed Beast growled out in frustration, this child was seriously not playing from the script, didn't he understand how this was supposed to go? How could he so casually blurt out what was supposed to be a life shattering revelation like 'It's me' as though it were nothing? Naruto now stood with his back turned to the fox, his shoulders shaking which got the Beasts attention, making it perk up as it thought it was finally going to see its host fall to pieces as it was expecting. Yes, he could hear the shaky breathing, the sound of what was clearly the beginning of tears and anguished crying… no… wait… he was…

"Heh, heh… ha, ha, ha… GHAHAHAHAHAAA!"

Naruto hugged his sides, shaking and stumbling as hysterical laughter tore through his system. Falling onto one knee as he physically tried to keep himself together while the Fox watched with disbelieving eyes. He suddenly turned back to look at the Tailed-Beast sealed within him, a creepy smile on his whiskered face and dangerous dark shadows looming over his eyes "Thank you… for enlightening me…" Naruto whispered. The Fox actually felt a twinge of something when looking at the boy, its pride would not allow it to be fear but it was something very disturbing.

**"You don't seem too upset, human"**

"UPSET!?"

The water violently splashed away as Naruto screamed out and twisted around completely to face the jailed creature once more "Because of you and Fourth Hokage I've lived a life of pain, suffering and misery. Time and again I've been hunted down and beaten like an animal and treated no better by people not content to make my life a misery but would undermine my future. Everywhere I turn I'm faced with more people with fresh new ways to torment me" he ranted with a fierce anger. Sighing at the end, done whining like a petulant little child. He had evolved beyond such petty concerns, even more so with this new development.

"But… had it not been for you I never would've discovered the pure joy and pleasure in Pain" he whispered again in that faint, longing voice. Falling to his knees and staring up at the Nine-Tails with a delirious grin "Thank you for showing me the way, I understand now" cupping his hands in the water and splashing it in his face, falling back and submerging himself completely while the Fox grew increasingly baffled by this display.

Naruto emerged, his spiky blonde hair flatted, shaking his head and clearing the hair from his eyes. Gazing at his surroundings, so this was his subconscious was it? Or maybe it was just where the Nine-Tails was sealed in him. Well, no matter, he understood enough to know roughly where he wanted to go from here.

"I feel relieved… reborn in fact…"

The Fox looked down at the boy as he seemed to float in his own head, ideas swirling around in those blue eyes of his that were filled with a renewed purpose. They locked with the slitted reds of the Fox one more time "And I shudder to think what the future has in store for the two of us…" rising from the water and coming to awkwardly linger around the bars, leaning on one for support that he didn't need "Death was the way to go before but now I'm eager to live, eager to see what else there could be…" The Fox was decidedly startled but couldn't help a smile. It was starting to recognize some of what it could see in those crazy blue eyes.

"Unfortunately those Villagers would see me dead…"

While it feared it may come to regret what it was about to do, the Tailed-Beasts curiosity was peaked and it wondered where the boys mind was heading. Also it sniffed the possibility for freedom in the air, this child, however damaged in the head he may be now, could be of use.

**"Well… If you'd care to co-operate with me for a bit… I could see to that problem…"**

The Third Hokage walked with an echoing patter to his steps down the hallways of the Village Hospital. About twelve hours ago there had been a disturbance in the middle of the night, a near-by Chunin on patrol witnessed a sudden explosion in an alley-way where a mob of villagers were gathering and jumped across the rooftops towards the scene to investigate. There he witnessed as the container for the Nine-Tailed Beast sent a group of angered civilians flying out into the street with a single swipe of his arm, grabbed another by the scruff of their shirt and sent them to join their friends with a decisive boot to the gut. The boy was badly injured, the Chunin could see several vicious cuts and lacerations all over his face, clothes were torn away to reveal even more across his extremities and torso.

Bleeding all over with more than a few broken bones and exuding a malicious red chakra from his body that almost froze the Shinobi with fear. Quickly he sent a distress call and soon a team of Jounin and Anbu arrived just in time to get the situation under control as an enraged Naruto pummelled his aggressors into submission. Intervening just before any loss of life could occur, a brief battle ensued, the boy was like a wild animal and was able to inflict some serious injuries upon the containment team but their superior skill and numbers eventually overwhelmed the boy. Placing him under a Sleeping Genjutsu and passing him over to the sealing corps.

Once they'd cleared that the Beast was not in danger of escaping they brought the boy to the Hospital to be treated. That brings us up to present, Now the Hokage looked through the window into Narutos hospital room. The boy was unconscious and bandaged all over, nothing but his left eye and a small tuft of hair left uncovered, he hadn't arrived in time to see the treatment for himself but a briefing he'd been given from the doctor told him it involved some serious bracing and stitching. The boy was holding together by the flimsy seems of his skin by the time they were handed his bleeding carcass, frankly there was little doubt in anyone's mind that the boys time among the living was concluded.

Yet by some miracle he had endured in what must've been searing, agonizing pain. The Hokage attributed his survival to the intervention of the Beast within and the childs natural strong will. The doctor came to his side and handed the tired old man the report, Hiruzen Sarutobi opened it after giving the son of his successor one final sad glance. However, as he read the report his eyes widened with shock. It was more than just brutal injuries to his body, what was detailed in here held very grave and serious implications.

Sudden movement in the corner of his eye caught the Hokages attention. Looking up he saw Naruto stirring, at first her jerked around like he was coughing but then the sound carried to his ears.

"Heh, heh, heh… Khaaahahaha…"

Coughing and spluttering accompanied the boys ragged laughter. Concerned, the Hokage dropped the report down to his side and cautiously entered the room properly. Watching as the boy seemed to settle down as if in response to his presence, closing the door behind him, the Hokage chanced a small breath. The atmosphere in here was shockingly heavy, he felt himself tense up in suspense, the way he only felt when in a life threatening situation, despite all he knew about young Naruto and what he believed was his true character, Hiruzen couldn't help but fear the somehow nearly-dead boy laying on that bed would suddenly lunge out and attack him.

"…Ah… Lord Hokage…"

Naruto spoke, his voice muffled. Though what could be heard was deep, raspy and ragged both from dehydration and no doubt serious injuries to his throat and neck. His single exposed eye opened up to reveal the dull-faded blue of this childs once bright and starry eyes. There was a dark amusement in his voice that made the Hokage sweat a little, only made worse at the next words from Narutos mouth.

"May I speak with you?"


End file.
